Sometimes, music makes a film; the right chord or the right melody can enhance the drama, the joy or the tension of a great cinematic moment. Pacific Symphony's 2014 American Composers Festival celebrates the music of Elliot Goldenthal, James Horner and Howard Shore. Each a prominent figure in film music, these extraordinary composers can also be celebrated in the concert hall!

The piece by Horner called Flight is indeed his Four horsemen music that as released as "Write Your Soul." It functions as a thrilling overture and unlike the common practice of film composers writing in a style totally different from their film work, this concert is designed to put their music in a serious context and present them as serious artists all the while honoring their way of writing that their fans love. It's also not your standard pops concert with "themes".

The new world premiere work by Goldenthal is a 20 minute+ titled "Symphony No.-1.1." The Shore concerto should be interesting. This is the West Coast premiere and I see the piece will be getting more performances in Europe. Presumably the composers will be attending. The choice of Williams' "For Seiji!" came from a conversation between music director Carl St.Clair and Williams at his recent performance at the Pacific Symphony last month.

It was a really good concert and I was surprisingly impressed by both the Shore and Goldenthal - I've never been super into either composer.

There were bits of the Horner that sounded like they were lifted right out of Star Trek II, but I guess that's to be expected at this point.

I unintentionally showed up very early, and some guy (who didn't identify himself) interviewed Goldenthal for 20 minutes or so. Funny stuff. Got into the temp track, low budgets - things you would not expect to be discussed.

Apparently not everyone shared my enthusiasm as I saw several old people leave in the middle of the Goldenthal symphony. There were also sadly a ton of empty's. I ordered a $19.50 goldstar seat in the promenade, but they gave me orchestra level for whatever reason.

Edwin Wendler and I went Thursday night and it was just WONDERFUL. We even got to meet Elliot as almost the ENTIRE audience was older people who probably had little to no idea who Mr. Goldenthal was. We saw Austin Wintory with a friend so between us four, we were the youngest ones there. Horner, Williams and Shore never showed up to any of the concerts. Yes I had a few Horner covers JUST in case on Thursday. We called the box office and we were told Horner and Goldenthal were supposed to be there that night. Only EG came, but that's FINE by me!

Here are a few shots from that night.

Edwin Wendler LEFT Peter Hackman RIGHT

Pre-concert discussion.

Intermission we met Elliot. SUPER nice guy and Edwin was so happy to meet one of his musical inspirations.

A short clip about Horner and his FLIGHT piece. Horner was not in attendance that night.

The concert.

Right after they performed Mr. Goldenthal's piece he came out and the night was finished.

The concerts are usually broadcast on KUSC. I loved the Goldenthal Symphony. There are two shocking moments: one in the first movement after being lulled with quiet gestures there is an explosion of sudden sound. I watched the audience physically jump when startled. The second is the inclusion of percussion during the climax of the work-the percussionists were outside the hall in the reverb chambers out of sight of the audience. It made the whole piece surround sound/stereophonic.